


Humming

by NerdyPanda3126



Series: Moments [6]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Feelings Realization, Luka Couffaine Knows, Pillow Fights, Sleeptalking, Watching Someone Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28673442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyPanda3126/pseuds/NerdyPanda3126
Summary: Marinette discovers that Luka hums in his sleep.Then finds out he mutters her name in his sleep, too.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Moments [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666048
Comments: 14
Kudos: 127





	Humming

**Author's Note:**

> So I was pretty sure I was done with this series, but then this little Lukanette moment popped into my head and... well...
> 
> Huge thanks to [hopedespite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopedespite/pseuds/hopedespite) for giving this a read through!

Luka hummed even in his sleep. 

It was after a Kitty Section rehearsal when Marinette first found out. Ivan and Mylène had already left and Luka had gone to the back to meditate. Marinette, Rose, and Juleka were below deck working on the new costumes. Juleka was nodding along as they talked, occasionally adding a thought here and there, but mostly just listening. 

From the back room, a tuneless humming started up, which made Rose and Marinette fall silent. 

“He does that sometimes,” Juleka muttered from behind her bangs, shrugging. “Just stressed.” 

“Why is Luka stressed?” Marinette asked. 

“School, work, love, music, take your pick.” 

Marinette stuck her bottom lip out in an unconscious pout as she thought about a stressed Luka. He was always so calm, and nothing ever seemed to bother him. Part of that had to be his meditation practice, but part of it was just… him. So if he was stressed out... She thought back to the past few times she’d seen him. Had there been more tightness to the way he held his shoulders? He had mentioned he hadn’t had any time to redo his hair; and he’d been picking at the chips in his nail polish during rehearsal earlier that night, too. 

It made her feel absolutely awful for calling on him to be Viperion more than usual lately. She tucked her hair behind her ear and tugged at her earring. If he was under so much pressure already, she shouldn't be putting any more on him. She shouldn't be asking any more from him. But she liked having him around if she was being honest. Not just his Second Chance power, but him. His cool head and quiet intensity.

It made sense, though, that if he was worked up about anything it would pop up when he was asleep. While he was unable to redirect or breathe through it. She tugged at her earring again and resolved to ask less of him. The humming stopped abruptly and the rest of the brainstorming session was eerily quiet without it. 

She didn’t think about it again until she was dropping the costumes off. Juleka had said Luka would be there and he’d help her carry them onboard. But when she set foot on deck with the masks in her hands, his tuneless humming greeted her. 

She followed the noise and found him passed out on the loveseat in the atrium, on his back with his legs hanging over the side. The fading orange light of the setting sun streamed through the arched westward-facing windows and spilled over his still form. He was still clutching his bike helmet; his knuckles grazed the floor occasionally as the boat swayed in the water. He must've come straight from work and been too exhausted to even make it down to his room.

She set the masks down, trying her best not to let them clatter to the floor, and ventured to his side to ease the helmet out of his grip. The humming paused and she froze, worried she’d woken him. But he only pulled his arm up and tucked it around his stomach. He tossed his head to the side and his hair fell over his eyes. When the sunlight split through it his hair looked more dark reddish-brown than black—his natural highlights bleeding through the semi-permanent dye. The blue fringe haloing his face was faded, too. She ached to run her fingers through it, to see the colors change and blend together in the sunlight. 

As soon as he was settled, his humming started up again. It was a deeper note than before and a crease formed between his eyebrows in his sleep. He tossed his head again to face her before the pitch changed. It became a high, keening noise, like cicadas whining in summer, and it made Marinette’s heart feel like breaking. 

Hesitantly, she laid the back of her hand to his cheek. He ran cool as he slept and she put her palm to his cheek instead, hoping to give him some warmth. His lips curved up into a smile in his sleep. She stroked his cheekbone softly. For some reason, her touch seemed to be calming him. The furrow had disappeared from between his eyebrows, and his humming was quieting until she could barely feel it through the vibration of his jaw. When even that faded, she pulled away and paused to look at him. 

“How'd you do that?” Juleka’s voice from the entrance of the atrium made Marinette jump. Juleka’s fingertips were braced above the doorway and she was leaning forward; Marinette had a brief moment of envy because Juleka was tall enough that it was barely a stretch for her. She dared to glance back at Luka and he was still solidly asleep, although his lips were moving as if he was singing along to something in his dream. 

“Heavy sleeper,” Juleka pointed out with a shrug.

“Um… I don’t know? I just… I touched his cheek?” 

Juleka rolled her eyes. “Figures.” 

“What?”

“Just when I thought he couldn’t get any more hopeless.” Juleka hung into the doorway a bit more and shook her head at him.

Marinette turned to look at Luka again. The small smile hadn’t left him. His eyelids were fluttering as he dreamed, and his fingers twitched on his stomach along to whatever melody he must be hearing. She wondered what it was like for him. To hear music everywhere, all the time. It almost sounded suffocating to her, but then she couldn't play like he could. She couldn't get to the heart of people like he could. 

She started when she realized Juleka was still watching her. This must look like Marinette was being a total creep, watching her brother as he slept. Juleka smirked and Marinette blushed as she looked away. 

“Watch this,” Juleka muttered. She waited until Marinette’s eyes were back on Luka before she raised the volume of her voice. “Marinette.” 

“Mmm…’nette.” Luka mumbled back. Marinette’s breath caught in her chest. If she hadn’t actually seen his lips moving, forming the syllables, she wouldn’t have believed it. 

“Found that out after you left last time," Juleka said smugly behind her. "He does it every time.” 

Marinette tried not to think too hard about what Juleka was implying. But Luka's unconscious smile had her heart fluttering. She tore her eyes away to look back at Juleka. “He’s just repeating the last word he’s hearing,” Marinette said. She couldn't help that her tone came out more defensive than she'd meant it to. 

Juleka raised her eyebrows.

“I’m sure it works with any name,” she continued stubbornly. 

“Tried that. Just yours.” 

Luka's humming picked up again, as if he could sense—even in his sleep—the tiny amount of tension between her and Juleka. Juleka jerked her head at him, her eyebrows still raised expectantly at Marinette. 

Marinette let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding before she reached out to brush the blue tips of his hair out of his eyes, letting her fingers linger against his forehead before she followed his brow bone around to cup his cheek again. 

The humming stopped. 

His cerulean eyes opened onto hers. 

He blinked at her before his hand came up to cover hers and his eyes bounced over to Juleka. 

"Welcome back, sleeping beauty," Juleka sneered. 

Without hesitation, he grabbed the throw pillow behind his head and threw it at her face. Juleka caught it, still grinning. 

"I thought I told you to cut that out," he muttered darkly, letting Marinette’s hand go as he pushed himself up on his elbows. 

"I think your specific words were—" Juleka scrunched her face up in a comical frown and deepened her voice to mimic Luka's—"'get the hell outta my face!'"

"And stop screwing with me when I'm asleep!" Luka reached underneath his knees for more artillery in the form of another throw pillow. 

"But you didn't say anything about Marinette screwing with you." Juleka’s smirk was threatening to slip off the side of her face. 

Luka froze mid-swing and his eyes snapped to Marinette. Her hands flew up in defense. 

"It was just—I mean, I didn't mean to! You were humming and when I touched your cheek and it stopped and then Juleka—and you said my name and I—" She clapped her hand over her mouth as Luka's eyes slowly went wider and his cheeks started turning pink. "I'm sorry," she said finally. 

Luka turned back to glower at Juleka. Juleka stared back, feigning innocence. After an intense standoff between the siblings, Juleka stuck her tongue out and waved her fingers under her chin before she giggled and walked away. Luka sighed and fell back against the couch when she was gone, covering his face with his hands as he groaned. 

“You’re _so_ lucky you don’t have any siblings,” he muttered into his palms. With another sigh, he wiped his hands down over his face and sat up fully. He shook off his exhaustion and fixed his expression before he focused on Marinette again. “Sorry about that.” His smile quirked to the side and he grunted as he started to lift himself up. “Costumes, right? Are they still on the bank? I can carry them in.” 

Without thinking about it, Marinette’s hand shot out to his shoulder and pushed him gently back down. He followed her direction, then raised his eyebrows in a question. She pulled her hand away from him and started twisting her fingers together instead. 

“Y-you’re tired. I can take care of this.” 

“Marinette, I’m fi—”

“No, you're not.” She fell to sit next to him and he turned to face her, crossing his ankle under his knee as he did and simultaneously putting a respectful space between them. He draped his arm across the back of the couch, though, so his fingers were a stretch away from brushing against her shoulder. Marinette bit her lip and glanced down at her hands in her lap. “I-I can… tell," she continued. "You worry so much about everyone else, and make sure they're taken care of. But you're wearing yourself too thin, taking everything on your shoulders like this. You need to take a break sometimes, too."

He hummed and turned his face to the window. She snuck a glance at him; he had his eyes closed as he raised his face to the sunlight that was filtering into the room. His tension left him as he took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out through his mouth. His shoulders relaxed; that small, unconscious smile came back; and he hummed again, in pleasure this time instead of in thought. When he opened his eyes again, he turned them on her, and his smile grew when he noticed she had been watching him. 

“You’re probably right,” he said, his voice low and quiet. “Everyone needs a break sometimes.” 

The way his blue eyes were so focused on her—like he was turning her words back on her—made a blush rise to her cheeks again and she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before she looked out the window this time instead. She felt it when he dropped his intense gaze to look just over her shoulder instead of through her. 

“I do worry about people,” he started again, “at least, the people I care about. The people close to me.” His fingers twitched towards her on the back of the couch and she shifted subtly into his touch. “And it can be a lot sometimes. But it’s nothing compared to what Chat Noir or Ladybug must feel. They have an entire city to care about.” 

His choice of words, and his quiet delivery, made her shiver. She dared to glance back at him and he wasn’t looking over her shoulder. He was looking at her ear. Where she had unthinkingly exposed the plain black stud of her unactivated Miraculous. His fingers brushed against her shoulder, reassuring her in his gentle way. 

“You worry about them, too, then?” 

He hummed again in agreement, a lower, more somber note than before. She found herself thinking that if you took all his different hums and put them together you could have a song all by itself. 

“I can’t imagine the pressure they’re under. They don’t seem much older than Juleka, but they’re out there saving Paris on an almost weekly basis. I just…” He shook his head and sighed. “I wish I could help more, you know?” 

Tears were springing to her eyes and she sniffed before she looked out the window again to swipe one away before it could fall. Before he could see. “You do,” she admitted, “more than you know.” She cleared her throat to try to get rid of the lump that was starting to stick there. “Um, but that’s why you should take more time for yourself, too. So that… the people that you care about… um…” She dared to glance up at him and he was looking off to her side this time, giving her space to say what she needed to. “Um, we worry about you, too.” 

He gave her a slow, gentle smile as his eyes traveled back to hers. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He dropped his hand to her shoulder and squeezed gently, and it sent a wave of warmth through her. "Thanks for thinking of me, Marinette." 

He pulled away and stood, offering her a hand up. "Together, then?" 

Her heart started fluttering again as she put her hand in his. She had a feeling he was talking about more than just bringing the costumes in. He raised his eyebrows as she hesitated, holding his hand, deciding if she should take him at his word or not. 

Her brow furrowed as she looked up at him. The burnt orange rays of the sunset haloed around him, making him look gold around the edges. He was still smiling, and his hand tightened around hers. 

"If we both do a little, neither one of us carries the full weight," he said with an easy half-shrug. "I help you, you help me, everyone wins." 

She let him help her up, and she steadied herself by bracing her hand against his elbow. His pulse raced under her thumb and she squeezed lightly. "You're right," she agreed finally. And he was. 

It was time for him to have Sass full time. It was time she trusted him to know his own limits, and to help her if that's what he wanted to do. 

"Together," she murmured back, squeezing his elbow one more time before she reached up to press a quick kiss to his cheek. "Thank you for thinking of me, too." 

From the doorway, there was an obvious, sarcastic throat clear and Luka turned to look right as a throw pillow thwacked him in the face. Juleka was hiding a snicker behind her hand by the doorway. Marinette glanced behind Juleka and noticed that while she and Luka had been talking, Juleka had quietly carried the rest of the costumes on board and set them by the stage. When she looked back at Luka, she watched as his eyes flicked to the costumes, then back to Juleka before his soft smile turned wicked. 

He picked up the pillow from the floor and Juleka flinched as he cocked his arm back like he was getting ready to chuck it at her with all his strength. But at the last second he swung at Marinette instead, catching her shoulder and tugging one of her pigtails loose. He grinned as both girls gasped and Marinette automatically reached for the other throw pillow still on the loveseat behind her. 

Luka raised his eyebrows in a clear challenge, but flicked his eyes almost imperceptibly back at Juleka and Marinette smirked back at him as she caught his meaning and twisted to fling the pillow at Juleka instead. 

An all-out every man for himself war broke out, with Luka augmenting the ammo with anything soft he could get his hands on, Marinette dodging as seriously as if they were akuma blasts, and Juleka hoarding everything in a pile on the stage. She cackled when—out of breath, out of ammo, out of ideas—Luka and Marinette were forced to concede. 

But they shared another glance with each other and rushed her at once, forcing her to take a step back and fall into her pillow pile. Luka landed on one side of her with his arm wrapped around her middle—even as he'd tackled Juleka he'd made sure he took the brunt of the fall—and Marinette landed on her other side, giggling at the thrill of their hard-earned victory. 

They stayed like that, letting their laughter peter out, until the lights of Paris started twinkling into view like stars. Juleka muttered something about her turn to make dinner and disentangled herself from Luka's arm, which fell limply back to the pillows.

When Juleka had walked away, Marinette glanced over at Luka and he looked like he was asleep again already, his smile from their war softened, but still there, his breathing deep and even. Content, she realized. 

As the last rays of pink light started to streak across the sky above them, she also realized that she should be getting back home. She pushed herself up on her elbows, thinking about how she could let him know she was leaving without waking him. Before she could second-guess herself, she leaned over and pressed a kiss to the back of his hand before she stood and walked stiffly across the deck. 

As she set foot on the stairs, his tuneless humming started up behind her, although it was softer, warmer. It was the same note as before when he'd lifted his face to the dwindling sunlight. She looked back one more time and blushed as she realized he'd moved to occupy the space Juleka had been in earlier. The space next to where Marinette had been. And his hand had curled around one of the pillows she'd been laying on as if he would've held her to him had she stayed. 

She turned away from him, and even the chill seeping into the air as the final vestiges of light disappeared couldn't cool her burning cheeks. The entire way home she had his humming singing through her thudding heartbeat and an uncontrollable smile on her face. 

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus:  
> "Rose and Marinette just left," Juleka muttered to her unconscious brother. He talked back sometimes, and it was fun to mess with him about it later.  
> "Mmm...'nette," he mumbled back without opening his eyes.  
> Juleka quirked an eyebrow at him. "Marinette."  
> "Mmm... 'nette."  
> "Oh. My. God. You're _so_ not hearing the end of this."


End file.
